


"I've been buying the wrong underwear."

by markonasurface (idwir)



Series: 50 Quote Prompts [12]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 14:32:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14834075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idwir/pseuds/markonasurface
Summary: Aaron and Katelyn are dead. They left their kids to Andrew and Neil. Neil calls Matt when he needs kid advice.





	"I've been buying the wrong underwear."

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr someone requested this for andreil. It turned into more of a boydsten fic.

It was a Friday when Tori came out of her class crying. Neil immediately blanched. It wasn’t often that he was able to pick the girls up from school, especially on a Friday afternoon, so he had been expecting a little more enthusiasm.

Her teacher came out with an apologetic look as Tori wrapped her arms around Neil’s knees and sobbed. “She wouldn’t say why she was upset,” Mrs. White said. “None of the other kids seemed to know what was wrong either.”

Neil picked up Tori and she hid her face in his neck. “Tori?” Neil tried, but she only pressed her face into him harder.

Mrs. White lowered her voice and said, “We are making Mothers’ Day gifts. Maybe that’s what’s upsetting her?”

“Maybe,” Neil said but wasn’t so sure. He walked down the hall, Tori’s tears soaking through the shoulder of his shirt and Vivienne holding his pinky.

Avery’s greeting was more cheerful and she screamed, “Uncle Neil!” She jumped in place, holding up a picture. “Look what I made for you. What’s wrong with Tori?”

“I don’t know, yet,” Neil said, frowning.

They sat in the car for ten minutes before Tori finally told them, “Brody spilt his juice on me so Mrs. White gave me my extra clothes and he saw my underwear and-and-and he told his friends that I wear boy underwear.” Her bottom lip quivered and she started crying again.

“Boy underwear?” Neil asked, confused.

“They won’t stop teasing me.”

Neil stopped at Baskin Robins and got the girls ice cream before they had to go to ballet. They were all smiling now but Neil couldn’t stop thinking “boy underwear”. Once they were in class, Neil sat in his car and called Matt.

“Hey!” Matt answered. “What’s up?”

Neil sighed. “I apparently bought the girls ‘boy underwear’ and Tori came out of class crying because some jerk and his jerk friends were teasing her about it. Like, I didn’t know there’s separate underwear for kids. I went to the same store where I got underwear for Cameron a few years ago. Fuck, Matt. I thought I was doing okay.”

Matt audibly took a breath and said, “You are doing okay. You’ve only had the girls for a few months. Aaron and Katelyn would be proud.” Neil didn’t know how many times Matt had said those words to him over the past three months. He had just started to believe them until this happened.

“I made their kid a fucking target.”

“You didn’t know!” Matt tried to make him feel better. No matter how many times Neil called him when Andrew wasn’t around, he didn’t complain. “Now you know. You can go to the same store where you got Cameron’s underwear but there’s a boys’ section and there’s a girls’ section. Ask someone who works there if you can’t find it.”

“We barely even spoke. Why would they leave their kids with us?” Neil asked, wallowing in his inadequacy. “Katelyn has - had a sister. I can’t believe they would willingly leave their kids with me and Andrew. Nicky would’ve been a better choice. Anyone would have been a better choice. Even Kevin.”

Matt sighed. “I don’t know, man. They must’ve had their reasons. If it makes you feel better, Dan and I put that you and Allison should decide who’s taking Cameron and Teagan.”

“Clara’s eighteen now,” Neil pointed out. “She can take them.”

“What if we all left our kids to you and we all died and you were stuck with all of our kids,” Matt said.

“Don’t joke about that,” Neil said.

He heard Matt’s son in the background. “Teagan took my racquet!”

“Nuh-uh! Cameron, it’s mine!”

Matt sighed. “Duty calls. You’re doing awesome, man. Cut yourself some slack.”

The line beeped and Neil dropped his phone in his lap. He turned up his air conditioner and pulled out of his parking stall.

* * *

 

“What the hell is all of that?”

Neil dropped his three boxes and looked up. Allison and Andrew were sitting at the table.

“Underwear. What is she doing here?”

“Underwear?” Allison looked incredulous.

“It was her turn to check up on how we’re doing with the kids,” Andrew stated, and Allison didn’t even try to deny it as the others had. “Why so much?”

Neil followed Andrew’s gesture toward the boxes and said, “I’ve been buying the wrong underwear.”

“Nobody needs that much underwear,” Allison said. “They’ll outgrow those quickly.”

Three cats were already pawing at the boxes. Neil shrugged. He picked up the Chartreux Kevin bought them five years ago and joined them at the table. “There’re three more boxes in the car.”


End file.
